Evolutionary history and divergence times of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) revealed through transcriptomics
Manpreet Kohli,
Harald Letsch,
Carola Greve,
Olivier Béthoux,
Isabelle Deregnaucourt,
Shanlin Liu,
Xin Zhou,
Alexander Donath,
Christoph Mayer,
Lars Podsiadlowski,
Simon Gunkel,
Ryuichiro Machida,
Oliver Niehuis,
Jes Rust,
Torsten Wappler,
Xin Yu,
Bernhard Misof,
Jessica Ware
Affiliations
Manpreet Kohli
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA; Corresponding author
Harald Letsch
Department for Animal Biodiversity, Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria
Carola Greve
LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Olivier Béthoux
CR2P (Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie – Paris), MNHN – CNRS – Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Isabelle Deregnaucourt
CR2P (Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie – Paris), MNHN – CNRS – Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Shanlin Liu
Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University,Beijing 100193, People’s Republic of China
Xin Zhou
Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University,Beijing 100193, People’s Republic of China
Alexander Donath
Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
Christoph Mayer
Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
Lars Podsiadlowski
Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
Simon Gunkel
Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
Ryuichiro Machida
Sugadaira Research Station, Mountain Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Sugadaira Kogen, Ueda, Nagano, Japan
Oliver Niehuis
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Institute of Biology I (Zoology), Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg, Germany
Jes Rust
Palaeontology Section, Institute of Geosciences, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, Bonn 53115, Germany
Torsten Wappler
Palaeontology Section, Institute of Geosciences, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, Bonn 53115, Germany
Xin Yu
College of Life Sciences, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Bernhard Misof
Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany
Jessica Ware
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA
Summary: Dragonflies and damselflies are among the earliest flying insects with extant representatives. However, unraveling details of their long evolutionary history, such as egg laying (oviposition) strategies, is impeded by unresolved phylogenetic relationships, particularly in damselflies. Here we present a transcriptome-based phylogenetic reconstruction of Odonata, analyzing 2,980 protein-coding genes in 105 species representing nearly all the order’s families. All damselfly and most dragonfly families are recovered as monophyletic. Our data suggest a sister relationship between dragonfly families of Gomphidae and Petaluridae. According to our divergence time estimates, both crown-Zygoptera and -Anisoptera arose during the late Triassic. Egg-laying with a reduced ovipositor apparently evolved in dragonflies during the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous. Lastly, we also test the impact of fossil choice and placement, particularly, of the extinct fossil species, †Triassolestodes asiaticus, and †Proterogomphus renateae on divergence time estimates. We find placement of †Proterogomphus renateae to be much more impactful than †Triassolestodes asiaticus.
